The Well
by angry-ace
Summary: Katherine needs to wish at the enchanted well.
1. Chapter 1

There was a legend about the well in the garden, one that Katherine was determined to find the truth of. The legend was that if you threw a coin into the well, its magic would make your dreams come true. The well was hidden away in a beautiful garden behind rows and rows of hedges that formed a cryptic maze. Despite the beauty of the garden, it was guarded by an evil dragon known as Pulitzer who hoarded the power of the well. Katherine would not let any of that stop her.

She held her sword tightly as she snuck up on the grey dragon. She was prepared to strike at it when it noticed her, screaming flames at her. She shielded herself in the enchanted cloak given to her by the witch Medda. The flames came for what felt like minutes, flames licked at her arms, she could feel them singing the hair off her arms despite the shelter of the cloak. The flames stopped. Katherine huddled beneath the conspicuous pink cloak, inhaling too much dirt and smoke.

Fortunately for Katherine, the dragon Pulitzer was quite arrogant. His large snout prodded her body before her lifted he with his teeth by the cloak. She kept the sword in her hands. He drew her up to the sky. She stared into his beady black eyes before rocking herself back and forwards. She slipped from her cloak and fell towards the monster's chest with her sword extended. Pulitzer realized what she was doing too late, his attempts to snatch her back up in his maw failed as she plunged the sword into his chest.

Gravity did its work. Scales snapped off of Pulitzer as her sword allowed her to slide down the beast by slicing open his center and downwards. Her feet hit the dirk as the dragon's blood soaked it. Her arms and legs were stained red as the gore that poured from the dragon.

She strode over to his now unmoving mouth and freed her cloak from its hold. She wrapped it around her shoulders like a shawl. She stepped over the defeated dragon's claws towards the green and extensive maze.

Though others would have struggled with the maze Katherine had a few moren tricks, or magical objects, up her sleeve. She pulled a small bottle of black ink from her breeches pocket and unstopped the vial. She poured the ink over the dirt and watched as it glowed silver and began to trail out, providing her the most efficient route to the place she most wanted to be. Katherine pictured the well, she pictured the happiness she would gain there.

Katherine followed after the ink, it soon became too fast for her to keep up with, necessitating a sprint. When it finally stopped extended and disappeared she panted, out of breath in the fabled garden of the well.

There it was. It was the well that would finally make her dreams come true.

Katherine took long eager steps towards the well. "I wish for someone to love and spend my life with," she said to the well. She fished around her pockets for a coin and dropped it into the deep pit, praying that the witch would make her dream come true.

"Ow!" Katherine heard a shout come from the well. She leaned over it, staring inside. Within the well she saw the most beautiful woman the world had ever produced standing in calf deep water. The woman gawked up at Katherine like she'd never seen another woman before in her life.

"Are you my wife?" Katherine asked.

"What?" Sarah yelled up. "Why would I be your wife?"

"I wished for a spouse. This well is enchanted, is it not? You must be a witch!" Katherine couldn't make heads or tails of the situation.

"I'm not a witch!" Sarah cried out. "My name's Sarah, I'm a princess. Pulitzer threw me down this well to terrorize my family. Please help me."

Katherine was shocked, she had been expecting a marriage and instead she was rescuing a princess. "How am I supposed to get you out?"

"There's a bucket tied to a rope that he uses to give me my meals. Throw it down to me." Katherine spotted the rope with a bucket and let it fall down the well. She felt a weight on the other end and began to haul the stranger up the well. When she had reached the top Sarah lost her balance and fell onto Katherine, knocking her down.

The princess laid on Katherine's chest, both of them breathing heavily. She certainly looked like a princess, a very disheveled princess who'd spent a few weeks being held captive in the bottom of a well by a cruel dragon. Though the well didn't actually have the enchantments she was hoping for, Katherine still felt hop that her wish would come true as she stared into the princess' pretty brown eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

"Thank you for rescuing me," Sarah breathed onto Katherine's face.

"It wasn't a problem." Katherine stood. "You were on my way."

"Thanks,"Sarah said again, this time saturated with sarcasm. To combat the guilt of her words to the princess, Katherine wrapped her pink cloak around the girl's thin shoulders. Sarah smiled, "thank you."

"You've gotta stop thanking me," Katherine joked.

Sarah blushed and brushed the hair from her face. "What are your plans now?"

Katherine thought on the question for a moment. So maybe the well wasn't magic, that didn't mean it hadn't sent her the love of her life. At the very least this girl was a princess, the reward for returning her to her family would likely be enough to drown both Katherine and Medda in riches for the duration of their lives. Having made up her mind, Katherine answered Sarah's question. "Escorting you home of course. It is my venerable honor to escort the princess home safely."

"Oh. In that case let's proceed." Sarah took a long pause. "Where are we?"

"You don't know?" Katherine asked.

"When you're abducted by a dragon you don't usually stop to ask about vacation spots," Sarah said annoyedly.

"Oh, sorry. We're in a secret garden buried deep within the kingdom of Manhattan. What are you princess of again?

"I'm the princess of Manhattan. I need to get to the castle so my brothers don't think I'm dead."

"Of course princess, follow me." Katherine led Sarah through the maze, managing not to get lost by following the bloody footprints Katherine had left during her initial navigation of the maze.

Though Sarah had been polite enough not to ask why Katherine was covered in blood, her politeness was beginning to fade. "So… what's with the mess on your arms, and legs, and sword?" Sarah phrased the question as kindly as she could manage.

"I slayed the dragon. I apologize for the gruesome sight, we'll be passing the corpse on the way out."

"You slayed the dragon?" Sarah said in disbelief. "But how?"

Katherine paused before answering, wondering if she should tell the truth of make herself look good. Katherine chose the truth. "It was luck. I thought I would die, but I got lucky."

"I'm sorry." Sarah gave her condolences. "I've just realized that I don't know your name."

"It's Katherine."

"Katherine of what?" Sarah asked.

"Just Katherine, I'm not nobility. I hate to disappoint you princess."

"It's not a disappointment," Sarah said earnestly. "Soon that will be remedied, a hero as brave as you deserves all the titles that can be given."Katherine blushed as red as the blood on her boots. The exited the maze together. When Sarah saw hulking corpse of the monster that had previously terrorized her she approached it before spitting on it. "Screw you!" she shouted, losing her composure. Sarah broke down in tears before sinking to the floor before Katherine wrapped her in a warm embrace.

"It's gonna be okay," she whispered. "You're safe now, he can't hurt you or anyone else ever again." Katherine pressed a soft kiss to the side of Sarah's head and rubbed her arms up and down.


	3. Chapter 3

The Jacobses didn't really expect to ever see Sarah again. Of course they hoped they would see their beloved sister again but they knew that hope required disbelief and that refusal to believe what had happened to their sister would only increase their pain in the end, so when she returned home with a knight in tow they were fairly surprised.

Sarah was still disheveled and coated in dried mud. Her knight in shining armor was crimson head to toe from the dragon's blood. They were quite the strange couple.

Regardless of the muck, when Sarah arrived on the palace steps King David Jacobs stepped down from his throne and embraced his sister. Prince Les did the same with even more abandon than his older and more formal counterpart. The siblings were wrapped up into a sobbing group hug while Katherine stood away from them standoffishly. Eventually they pulled apart.

"Are you alright?" David brushed his sister's face gently. "We were so worried."

"I'm okay. Katherine saved me, she slayed the dragon. She's a hero."

Davey looked up, "Are you Katherine?"

"Yes," she responded.

"And you saved my sister?"

"You could say that."

"Where are you from brave knight? The royal family will shower you with more riches and titles that you can ever imagine."

"The New York Sun Your Majesty." Katherine's heart was lighter than a sailing dragon's scales; she and Medda could be set for life, never having to worry about money. Medda could finally open the theater of her dreams and Katherine could possibly have the titles appropriate to give her a chance of marrying the beautiful woman from the well, Sarah.


	4. Chapter 4

On the balcony.

After the heartfelt reunion with her family Sarah went to her bedroom and ran a bad, scrubbing the slime and grime from her exhausted body. She was immensely glad to be home, she felt that she could sleep for days, but once she wrapped herself in the warm blankets of her bed she could do nothing but lie there without sleep. She rolled over, she put her head under her pillow, she even got another blanket, but no matter what she did sleep continued to elude her.

Eventually Sarah gave up on rest, tugged open the doors to her terrace, and stared at the moon. She phased out of thoughtfulness and simply gazed at the glowing white orb taking residence among the stars of the black sky bright with its light. Many moments passed as the cool night air traced Sarah's skin breezily before Katherine knocked on the door.

Sarah barely bothered to turn her head at the noise. "Come in please, it's unlocked."

Katherine slowly turned the elegantly simple doorknob and stepped into the bedroom. Her good sense was seduced away from her by the sight of the beautiful woman in the white dress who's curls shone in the moonlight. "You're stunning," she wonderingly admitted.

Sarah cheeks glowed; like a fire through the darkness Katherine could still make out her shine. "Thank you Katherine. Would you like to join me on the balcony?"

"I'd love too." Katherine approached the princess more gracefully than she had even done before. "If it's not too forward I'd like to take your hand," Katherine suggested.

"I don't think that would be too forward." Sarah reached around Katherine's waist and took her left hand, nudging the pair together.

"If it's not too forward I think that I'd like to kiss you."

Instead of a reply Sarah answered Katherine with a gentle kiss with only the eyes of the moon upon them.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning Katherine woke up in Sarah's bed next to the most lovely person to ever exist. She remembered how she got there too.

There had been a kiss. Sarah's lips had been dry and cracked after her ordeal with Pulitzer and the well, but Katherine still felt something from their touch. There was an ascension within her body like the center of her abdomen was being tugged up to her heart. It wasn't the feeling that Katherine usually got from kisses either. It wasn't the feeling of lust where there was warmth in her hips but not in her heart; Katherine wouldn't call it love; she wasn't ready for that yet, but it was more than lust and surpassed affection. Whatever the feeling was, it felt good.

Katherine could marry Sarah. She could picture waking up next to a woman so lovely every morning, and kissing her at the end of every day. It could be perfect. That could be her life with Sarah.

Katherine was talented with more than just swords and romance; she had always possessed the talent of thinking three steps ahead and adapting to changes of plan with considerable ease, so when the well wasn't really enchanted and couldn't give her a wife by magic, Katherine figured she might have a shot with the brown haired girl she found inside.

After the kiss the girls had stayed up talking. Sarah had told Katherine about her brothers, Prince Les and King Davey. Technically now that Sarah was back home she was the queen because she was the oldest of the Jacobs siblings. Their parents, Ester and Mayer lost their lives in the fight against Pulitzer.

Katherine was going to leave. She said she felt tired, and it wasn't untrue either. Sarah dismissed her, but just before Katherine left, Sarah called her back. "Katherine," she had said, "do you mind staying a little longer? I can't really sleep."

"I'll stay," Katherine had agreed. That's how Katherine had ended up getting the best sleep in her life. They had laid side by side like knives in drawer. Katherine didn't try to increase the physical intimacy, rather it happened naturally. Sarah fell asleep first and Katherine second. When Katherine woke up Sarah's limbs were wrapped around her; it was comforting. No one but Miss Medda had ever held her so warmly.

It was perfect and it was peaceful, and the Sarah woke up and it got even better. "Good morning Sarah," Katherine whispered.

Sarah groaned sleepily, "Morning Katherine." She took a moment to take in her surrounding with an anxious fervor. She awkwardly locked eyes with Katherine, "Sorry I was just trying to make sure I was home. I've been waking up in a lot less pleasant places as of late.

"Well at least you're not up to your knees in stagnant water this time."

"That well was disgusting."

"No place for a princess to be." Katerine fingers tickled Sarah's chin and her eyes sparkled with sincerity.

"Katherine?"

"Thank you for staying with me," she paused, "and for rescuing me. Do you think that maybe you might stay longer? At the castle I mean."

Katherine's heart swelled with warmth. "You want me to stay?" She intertwined their fingers together.

"Of course I do." Sarah's hair glew with morning light. She tilted her head up to lock eyes with Katherine. "Do you know how beautiful you are Katherine?" she remarked.

"I don't think anyone would ever consider me beautiful," Katherine answered. And why would they? As far as Katherine saw she was nothing more than tight cords wound too tightly around a weak concept of a girl crammed into a suit of armor drenched in blood. She had killed Pulitzer without hesitation and she had killed others before him as well. That was life. Katherine stunk of smoke and grime and death and a poor girl without parents who had been pitied by a kind woman of no blood relation to her. No. There was more to hers and Medda's relationship now than pity; there was mutual love and support between the two. Medda was the only mother that Katherine had ever known.

"Well that's just silly," Sarah's musical voice rang clear through the slew of Kath's dark thoughts. "You're the prettiest girl in the kingdom. You really would be suited to be a queen, more so than me."

Katherine scoffed, "Maybe I'm the second prettiest girl in the kingdom, but I know who holds the top spot. As for being queen, I am grossly unqualified for a position like that."

"That's exactly how I feel Katherine," Sarah said revealing another piece of her tender heart.

"You seem pretty qualified to me Sarah."

"I'm not ready. My parents should have led this country for many more years. They were taken from us far too soon." Tears trickled down her cheeks and Katherine wiped them away.

"I'm so sorry Sarah." Katherine gave Sarah a comforting embrace. "I never knew my parents, Medda's the only mother I've ever known."

Sarah dried her eyes. "Then I must meet her." She gently kissed Katherine on the forehead, and then on the lips.


End file.
